The disclosed embodiments relate generally to print job management and, more particularly, to a system and method for controlling the printing of a copyright job in a printing system.
Printing systems, including photocopiers, electronic printers, digital copiers, telecopiers, spirit duplicators, and the like, are used to reproduce all types of documents, including documents that should not be reproduced, or whose reproduction should be limited, tracked or controlled. One common example of a potential abuse of printing system is the copying or reprinting of materials subject to copyright. Many governments have updated copyright laws, and worldwide efforts have been underway to develop a means by which authors and publishers can be fairly recompensed for such copying. Non-profit national collectives, for example the Copyright Clearance Center in the United States, also referred to as Reproduction Rights Organizations (RRO's), implement copyright licensing systems and convey royalties to the authors and publishers. The RRO's derive their authority from national legislation, contracts with the authors and publishers, and bilateral agreements with other RRO's.
Current print production copyright management solutions, such as Xerox's FreeFlow Copyright Management Solution (“FreeFlow” is a trademark used by Xerox Corporation), provide mechanisms for obtaining copyright clearances for products, such as course packs, that may require multiple clearances from multiple sources. As indicated above, this may be achieved, in many instances, by obtaining clearance from an automated system such as the Copyright Clearance Center. This clearance may grant a given print shop a license for printing an agreed upon number of copies for a cleared work. Unfortunately, a mechanism for enforcing this license to, for example, avoid production overruns might be completely absent, thus exposing print providers and their customers to possible liability for copyright infringement.
In accordance with one aspect of the disclosed embodiments there is disclosed a system for controlling printing of a print job in a printing system having a plurality of print system modules. The print job includes a first section with a first plurality of pages and a second section with a second plurality of pages, wherein each one of the first and second sections includes copyrighted content for which clearance is required prior to printing the first plurality of pages or the second plurality of pages. The system comprises: a controller for controlling operation of the plurality of print system modules; a memory, communicating with said controller, for storing the first and second sections; a copyright manager, communicating with said controller, for determining that copyright clearance is unavailable for one of the first and second sections; and said controller, responsive to said determining of said copyright manager, either causing (1) printing of the one of the first and second sections to be prohibited until a selected condition is met, or (2) an operation to be performed with respect to the one of the first and second sections so that only pages for which copyright clearance has been obtained can be printed.
In accordance with another aspect of the disclosed embodiments there is disclosed a method of controlling printing of a print job in a printing system. The print job includes a first section with a first plurality of pages and a second section with a second plurality of pages, wherein each one of the first and second sections includes copyrighted content for which clearance is required prior to printing the first plurality of pages or the second plurality of pages. The method comprises: (A) storing each one of the first and second sections in memory; (B) determining, with a computer based subsystem, that, at a first time, copyright clearance is unavailable for one of the first and second sections; and (C) responsive to said determining of (B), performing one of: (1) prohibiting printing of the one of the first and second sections until it can be determined at a second time that a selected condition can be met, and (2) performing at least one operation with respect to the one of the first and second sections so that only pages for which copyright clearance has been obtained can be printed